(doing daring deeds)

June 22 – Let’s just say we didn’t get up at 5 AM this morning… Matt didn’t make it out of bed until 10 AM. Remarkably, both of us could move all muscles and joints with ease. We were pretty happy, considering we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to move. So happy in fact, that we decided to go on another hike! There are many, many hikes to choose from in Chugach State Park. I was voting for an easy one… but there seemed to be a lack of 4 mile hikes. So we settled on a 6 mile strenuous hike – Twin Peaks. The walking surface was an easy one – an old road. Unfortunately, it was a steep old road, and after the first hour or so, my legs were complaining.

A view of Eklutna Lake from the trail.

Matt however, was fresh as a daisy of course… But he waited patiently for me to trudge on, and we did reach the viewpoint of the twin peaks, had our snack, and headed back down.

Twin Peaks (you can’t see them, but there were a couple dozen sheep on the hillside)

It was only mid-afternoon, but I was ready to just relax. We already had reserved a hotel for the evening to shower and sleep in a bed!! So we headed to the Eagle Hotel in Palmer, AK and did just that. We went to bed fairly early because…

June 23, 4:30 AM

Rise and shine! Matt and I were up early, heading to the parking lot for the hike up to O’Malley Peak – our last hike in Alaska for now.

A mama moose with her two calves along the road to O’Malley Peak trailhead

O’Malley overlooks Anchorage, AK, on one side and part of the Chugach range on the other. It is also a popular area to hike, hence the early start to ensure a parking space (it turns out we need not have worried, as the parking lot was quite large). There are many routes to the top of O’Malley, and we had chosen to do a loop – ridge walk to the top, and then scree down and walk through the wide, flat valley on the way back. There were still many snow banks left, and we had to walk through one to get onto the ridge.

Hiking over the snow bank to get on to the ridge.

Matt walking up a snow bank on the ridge leading to O’Malley Peak

The ridge was very rocky, much like pieces of Cantada Peak had been, but in a much milder fashion. It was easy to skirt steep parts, or if we did climb, it was just a few feet in a sheltered area between rocks. However, it took a long time. The ridge is known for its many false peaks and with the rocky terrain, it was slow going.

Climbing our way through the rock on the ridge.

Standing on a false peak along the ridge.

Looking out over the surrounding area from the ridge.

Fortunately, we did eventually make it to the top, and had beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and city. Ironically, our last day in Alaska turned out, in regards to the weather, exactly what we had expected from Alaska – cool and windy. The sun had chosen not to make an appearance for our hike, so that had contributed considerably. However, the clouds made for some cool pictures at the summit.

A view from the top of O’Malley Peak.

Looking out over Anchorage from the top of O’Malley Peak.

After a brief rest at the summit (it got cold!), we headed down the scree. Now Matt is a huge fan of screeing, and is very comfortable with it. However, in a particularly thin area (an area with little scree to slide down) he happened to take a very graceful fall, basically plopping down when his feet stopped skiing. Being the slower of the two of us, I was behind him and laughed heartliy as he claimed he had just needed a break so he had sat down. And so he sat while I made my way down to him… only to find that right as I came up behind him, I too fell on my butt! We laughed pretty heartily at our twin falls. We won’t mention how many more “rest breaks” Matt took on his way down. We did make it down, and much more quickly than the ridge walking up had taken. The valley we walked through on the way back is called the “ball field” because of its flat nature with hills rising on bath sides like bleachers. It made for a nice walk back, and an end to our hiking in Alaska for now.

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Allison and I had scheduled three days in Chugach to climb mountains. I pulled some maps and route descriptions off Summit Post, and we decided to tackle the most intimidating peak on day one. We figured we would be coming off a day-and-a-half of rest, so it was probably our best chance for success.

Starting the hike through the fog

Eagle and Symphony lakes in the background

This “intimidating peak” – Cantata – is reached by hiking six miles to a pair of glacial lakes (Eagle Lake and Symphony Lake), then climbing another three-ish miles and several thousand feet up a valley and along a razor-like ridgeline, and finally up the scree fields on the south-facing slope. The crux of the climb is the western ridge.

The western ridge, from below

At first glance, the ridge appears way too sketchy to attempt without climbing equipment. I’d read online, however, that it could be kept at class 3 with some patient route-finding.

Allison and I reached the base of this ridge after a few hours of steady uphill hiking. Instead of standing around gazing at the towering slopes before us (and likely talking ourselves out of the climb), we paused for only a few seconds before jumping right in.

Crossing a snowy patch

Cantata Peak

In hindsight, we really had no business attempting some of the more exposed sections.

Routefinding

Routefinding (mud glacier in background)

“Do you think we ought to turn back?”
“Huh?”
“Do you think we ought to turn back?”
“Sorry, it’s really windy up here. But yeah, we can stop for a snack.”

Free climbing

We ended up missing the essential turnoff to keep things class 3, and wasted nearly two hours scrambling around on some genuinely scary class 4 stuff (“but we can’t stop NOW! We’re only 200 feet from the top!”). We finally decided to turn around…but before doing so, I wanted to explore one more scree chute. This turned out to be our ticket to the top…but only after descending several hundred feet and side-sloping over to the more friendly south face.

The final stretch

Signing the summit register

Looking back toward the lakes

Summit view, looking south

Of course, the battle was only half-won at this point. Allison had humored my enthusiasm on the way up, but now I was starting to realize exactly how dicey the descent was going to be (and to appreciate why she had been so concerned on the way up). The image of a cat getting stuck up in a tree would be appropriate here. I won’t go into the details, but it was a very slow and methodical process getting down.

Going down the ridge

But we did make it down, eventually.

Looking back at the summit

After descending the mountain, we made the final 6 mile trudge back to the car – just in time for an 11:00pm dinner at a local pizza joint. The entire trip took 15.5 hours.

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As mentioned in the previous post, we headed back to the Anchorage area on June 20 so we could climb some of the beautiful mountains in that area as well. Shortly after leaving the park, we happened to see our first bear running across the road (a black bear). Unfortunately, he was too fast for our camera, so you’ll just have to take our word for it. Also documented in our previous post was our love of Broad Pass Cafe, and their hamburgers. Well, we got there a little before their lunch hour, but no worries because they serve breakfast as well. We decided since their hamburgers were so good, breakfast would probably be awesome as well. I ordered a short stack of pancakes with scrambled eggs, and Matt had the Awesome Omelet loaded with meat, mushrooms, and cheese. We knew when the order came that this was not going to be an ordinary breakfast…

Our breakfast at the Broad Pass Cafe

In fact, the breakfast seemed destined to be a pretty exciting affair. Shortly after our order arrived, a group of bicyclists (they were biking 1,200 miles through Alaska in 3 weeks) arrived to eat before their daily ride. They sat next to us and honed in on the foot wide pancakes I was attempting to devour. Now, our readers should know that the short stack holds 2 of these giant pancakes, and there is a tall stack… which contains 5. Apparently there was a renowned eater in their group, and the other group members quickly challenged him to the task of eating a complete tall stack of pancakes. Being a good sport, he accepted. Little did he know what he was getting himself in to. Apparently Broad Pass Cafe has a Facebook page with a tall stack challenge posted. The closest so far to completing was a 15 year old boy who worked at the cafe, coming in at 3.5 pancakes. So the cook (or mom, since this is a family owned restaurant) sent her son (the waiter, about age 15 as well) out to take a before picture of our biker friend, to be followed by an after picture that I really need to go look at on Facebook. Matt and I stayed long enough to see the tall stack arrive, and wish him luck. He had a small crowd at this point, and we were sad to have to leave.

The tall stack…

We continued our journey to the Anchorage area and stopped mid-afternoon at Eagle River Campground to see if we could find a campsite still available. We were in luck, and quickly set up camp. We chose this campground because it is in Chugach State Park, the park we were hoping to hike in for the next few days, and was extremely close to our first planned hike – Cantata Peak. We scouted out the trailhead about 15 minutes away, went into Anchorage for a few more supplies, and went to bed extremely early – alarm set for 5 AM the following morning.

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As most of our readers know, we rarely follow the beaten path when it comes to our vacations. In fact, so far in Denali we have walked on an established trail a total of 1 mile (not counting the trails between the campsites and Visitor’s Center). Well, we thought we’d be real tourists today and do something most tourists do. First, Matt slept until almost 8 AM! I still got up at 6:30, but we’ll excuse that. Then we decided to take a morning hike on a trail. In fact, it was one of the approximately 8 hikes in the park that have an established trail. It was the only one with a “strenuous” rating. So up to Mount Healy we went. It was quite the uphill hike – 2.5 miles. Unfortunately, when we got to the top, the views were poor due to haze in the air. That was rather disappointing. But at least we got our morning exercise in.

On top of Mt. Healy overlooking the town right outside of Denali.

After our vigourous 5 mile hike, we were hungry. And rather sick of freeze-dried meals, Ramen, and energy bars. So we ventured to our favorite hangout place in the park, the Mercantile. The Mercantile has frozen chimichangas and a microwave, amongst many other frozen meal and food choices, – so chicken chimichangas became the lunch choice.

After lunch we went to the dog kennels. Denali is the only national park that still uses sled dogs actively to maintain the park. And everyday they give park visitors the chance to come meet the dogs and learn about what they do. It was a touristy demonstration (they had a sled on wheels that a few of the dogs pulled to demonstrate), but also very informative. They had a map showing the routes the dogs run in the winter to patrol the boundaries and carry supplies. No snow machines are allowed in the Denali Wilderness. Currently they maintain about 30 dogs, all of which are of the Alaskan Husky breed. But you would never know it looking at them, as they all look completely different. They also had gear from the past and present to view, and rangers to answer questions. We were glad we went.

Visiting with the dogs. They stay outside year-round.

You can see how different this dog looks compared to the first.

Part of the dog sled team in action! (they have wheels on the sled)

The rest of the evening we spent relaxing, as tomorrow we head to Anchorage to climb three peaks, once again off the beaten path. However, on our way down we plan to stop at the most amazing burger restaurant that Matt and I have ever found. It is literally this little cafe attached to a gas station at the corner of Routes 3 and 8 (or George Parks Highway and Denali Highway). We ate there on the way up.. and can’t wait to eat there again tomorrow. Of course our favorite burger restaurant would be in Alaska. All the more reason to come back!

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After three days of backpacking, Allison and I were ready to do some climbing without 30 lb packs. We decided to tackle Mount Margaret – a nice little mound of rock near the park entrance that would conveniently save us having to purchase more shuttle tickets.

The first part of the climb was a pretty easy class 2 walk-up. Because it was so easy, we got lazy with the route selection… and before we knew it, we found ourselves facing a somewhat nasty class 4 pitch. This was the kind of stuff that definitely would have turned us aside, had we been lugging the more cumbersome backpacking gear.

But we weren’t lugging the more cumbersome backpacking gear, so there wasn’t going to be any retreating. The question really came down to our different climbing styles. I was in favor of bypassing this particular stretch by traversing a field of loose scree, while Allison wanted to just climb the thing head-on.

“Hey, Allison, how’s about we cut over that way.”
“Are you nuts!? You’re going to get me killed. We should go this way.”
“Are you nuts!? You’re going to get me killed.”

And so on.

Being a gentleman, I caved in first. And I even insisted on going second, so I could take pictures and absorb the blows from the rocks she rained down on me (and also, so I could tell myself that I’d somehow manage to catch her if she came falling by (and, I suppose, so she could use her otherworldly (and vastly superior) route-finding skills to actually find a way to the top)).

…and there she goes

“Don’t leave me!!”

I was definitely awake at this point, and I’d only had one small cup of instant coffee. After about 35-40 vertical feet of scrambling, we found a way to cut back over to a more gentle slope.

Cutting back over to a more gentle slope

The rest of the climb was uneventful, except for the little mountain sheep we kept running into. I wanted to shout at them – “WAKE UP SHEEPLE” – but Allison was determined to creep up on them quietly so we could take pictures. So I (sheepishly) complied. (I used the “sheepish” pun as many times as I could throughout the day, but for some reason Allison didn’t find it as funny as I did.)

Bah

So we get to the summit, and come to find out the top of this mountain was right off the set of The Lord of the Rings.

Weathertop in the background; Ringwraiths off-screen stage left

“They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard!”

We also found a cool place to eat lunch, and I did some crawling around on the ground with my tiny, 3-year-old, completely non-fancy Nikon Coolpix…just to prove that any buffoon with a digital camera can take awesome pictures. (I have this thing against camera snobs, see.) Behold my amateurish artistry:

While eating, we saw a marmot watching us from the rocks. We also got charged by a sheep, but he veered off about 30 feet before reaching us. I don’t think he appreciated us eating lunch on his hillside.

Eating lunch on his hillside

Sheepishly moving away from the angry sheep

Later in the afternoon we climbed down the other side of the mountain, hiked back to the car, and called it a day.

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From the top of Cabin Peak, we decided to make a gradual ridge walk down to a neighboring valley.

Hiking along.

Just hiking on top of the world.

It was a great plan (we saw three elk hanging out in the shade below us.. until they saw us and took off) until we had to start heading into the valley – more thick brush, ugh.

We did eventually make our way down to the stream to enjoy a quiet lunch before crossing the valley, a few streams, heading down a side canyon, and finally up into the mountains again. We were now on part of Polychrome Mountain (Polychrome is huge, so we hiked a very small piece of it).

Up, up, up!

A rest break looking out over Cabin Peak (the brown one, dead center) from Polychrome Mountain.

Taking a rest break on Polychrome Mountain.

After more uphill hiking, we reached a beautiful valley and decided to set up camp at the top for the evening.

Looking over the mountains north of Polychrome Mountain.

Beautiful flowers on Polychrome Mountain, with beautiful scenery!

Viewing the landscape.

We got to eat dinner on the ridge and enjoy a little breeze!

Dinner on the ridge.

We also enjoyed the peeping/scolding some of our valley neighbors gave us (little creatures that look like prairie dogs that live in the mountains of Alaska). We even got to watch the meanderings of some Dahl sheep across the valley. Matt and I have decided we are forever grateful for their carefully laid paths along the mountainsides, which we found ourselves following quite regularly.

Our campsite on June 16th.

Our campsite on night 2, overlooking the valley.

Our final day was spent hiking out of the valley, up a stream, and across the tundra to the road.

Hiking through our favorite overgrowth.

We saw many signs of black bear, grizzly bear, moose, elk, and sheep, but no sightings of the actual creatures who made all the prints along the shore and left their poop on the tundra. Once we reached the road, we were picked up by a shuttle and carried back to our car. Showers and pizza (topped with reindeer sausage and ground elk) were the first stops made. 🙂

Our route is in black. The pink marks the boundaries for zones 32 and 31.

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Upon arriving in Denali National Park on June 14, we quickly arranged a backpacking trip to take place over the following three days, June 15- June 17. The logistics of planning a trip in Denali were new to Matt and I for the simple reason that Denali is divided into backcountry zones. There are 87 zones in Denali, and only so many people are allowed to be camping in each zone each night (approx. 6-8, but is depends on the size of the zone, animal density, etc.). After much deliberation, we decided to hike in zones 32 and 31. These zones would give us mountains we could climb with our packs, and tundra that was not too heavily wooded.

We started June 15th at 6 AM to break camp and meet the shuttle that would take us to our drop- off point. Denali is also unique in that you have to take a shuttle to almost all destinations, and the park road is over 80 miles long (which takes the shuttles about 6 miles to transverse). Our drop-off point was around mile 53, and it took about 3 hours to get there.

We arrived at our “trailhead” (there are few maintained trails in the park, so almost all hiking is self-navigated with a map and compass) at 10 AM and quickly set off down the east bank of the Toklat River. The Toklat River is very wide with many branches, shallow in most places, but can get deep with snow and glacier runoff.

Matt walking on a snowbank along the Toklat River.

Since the weather was in the high 80’s and very sunny, we had been warned that the afternoons could get very tricky with river crossings. We therefore started on the east side of the river with the intention of staying there. However, we came to a dilemma not long after: cross a branch of the river, or start hiking through a dense forest. We chose to venture the river since we had come prepared with water shoes. We found that one crossing led to many more as the branches of the river intertwined. At first it was nice and shallow – easy crossings. But as time went on we found the channels getting deeper and quicker. (We actually took a video of one such crossing…coming soon!)

Crossing the river – it got waist high in some places!

We realized we weren’t going to be able to keep following the river without risking a wipeout, so we ventured onto the tundra to continue our hike. Our destination for the night was Cabin Peak, a 4,961 ft. tall mountain. We quickly realized that hiking across the tundra was nothing like hiking in the lower 48. First, the tundra is like a sponge, so it’s a bit like walking in soft snow that you sink in, and then have to lift your leg out to take the next step. In other words, it’s hard work. The tundra also has many small trees and bushes growing across is, as well as many small streams. Without a trail, it was important to find high points occasionally so that we could pick the best route. So that was step one when we reached the tundra – find a small hill to climb, figure out what route to take with the least number of obstacles, and then do our best to follow that route as we went (there were always unexpected obstacles that you couldn’t see or plan for). That worked pretty well.

Slowly but surely working my way up.

We correctly identified Cabin Peak, found an appropriate ridge to start climbing it, and even saw a moose on the way up. As we climbed the views of the surrounding areas got better and better. There were so many beautiful peaks, rivers, and glaciers to look at. We took lots of pictures. 🙂

Beginning our ascent into the mountains with the Toklat River in the background.

We did tucker out before reaching the peak, and decided to make camp in a shallow basin mid-climb.

Our campsite on June 15th.

Allison sitting outside the tent, looking out over the scenery.

That brings us to sleeping in Alaska during the summer. There really isn’t a complete darkness. The sun doesn’t move directly above at mid-day. Instead the sun circles around the sky, dipping below the horizon for just a few hours (which brings a twilight darkness, but never to the point where it is hard to see), and then coming back up again. So camping really becomes difficult is you are accustomed to sleeping in darkness. You have to fall asleep when it is light, and never really get a true darkness. The other unfortunate circumstance was that Alaska was having a heat wave, and it was around 85 degrees out. Too hot, especially when the breeze only came occasionally. Matt and I are still wondering why we brought warmer clothes, as even at night the temperature dips to the 60’s for just a few hours – nothing the sleeping bag can’t handle. Anyway, we made it through the first night, Matt sleeping much better in the sunlight than I, and proceeded the next morning to finish the climb to Cabin Peak.

The ridge we are planning to walk.

Walking the ridge.

Matt on the ridge.

What a view!

Consulting the map for the best route. Mt. McKinley is the biggest, white peak on the right.

Looking out to the surrounding mountains.

Heading down the ridge from Cabin Peak.

The views were spectacular, and well worth the climb. Matt also celebrated his 24th birthday looking at the views!

Matt on a ridge below Cabin Peak.

(to be continued)

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Well, our trip to Alaska began in superb Rodgers’ fashion. Our flight out of Milwaukee was to leave at 6:50 AM. So naturally, we set a couple of alarms for around 3:30 AM to ensure we would have plenty of time to get to the airport, check bags, and get through security. And somehow… we slept through all of the alarms. Thank goodness for my internal clock that gets me up by 5:30 AM, a habit left from the school year. So at 5:24 AM, I sat bolt upright, saw the sunshine streaming in, and panicked. Fortunately, Matt heard my exclamations of “Matt, it’s 5:24!” right away and we switched into high gear. We were on our way to the airport in less than 10 minutes. Thank goodness for good teamwork. We even remembered all chargers, somehow. We arrived at the airport at exactly 5:50 AM. Once again, good teamwork allowed me to check the luggage, while Matt parked the car. The security line was pretty short, so we managed to arrive at our gate 10 minutes before boarding even started… leaving Matt enough time to get his cup of coffee before the flight. Matt and I spent the rest of the day marveling at our good fortune and trying to figure out how we managed to make that first flight. The rest of the travel day proceeded smoothly – Milwaukee to Dallas, Dallas to Seattle, and Seattle to Anchorage.

As many of our readers can probably imagine, our first stop upon arrival in Anchorage (after picking up our rental car), was REI. We had a lot of fun, as it was a larger REI with many new food options available. After stocking up on food needed for Denali National Park, we headed to Palmer, AK to spend the night en route to Denali. It’s going to take some getting used to, because we went to bed at 11 PM, and it was still very bright out. Apparently, sunset is around 11:40 PM, and the sun rises again at 4:10 AM… so we slept through any darkness that occurred.

June 14, 2013

So I (Allison) am the early riser in the Rodgers duo, so I got up around 6 AM and decided to take a walk. I was hoping for some great scenery pictures, but we we’re staying in the middle of Palmer, and the buildings were in the way for great mountain pictures, even though we are surrounded by them. However, I did find a very interesting memorial nearby that was dedicated to the Matanuska Colony Project. No, worries, I had no idea what that was either, but they had awesome boards of information. Apparently, during the Great Depression, the U.S. paid people living in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin to go start a colony in Alaska named…. Palmer, AK! So they had a memorial with the names of the colonists from each state that came to Alaska to settle. I know I’m turning into my dad with these historical connections, but I thought that was pretty cool, right?

The dedication plaque to the colonists who had moved to Palmer, AK.

One of the Matansuka Colony Project informational signs.

The list of colonists who were from Wisconsin.

Anyway, we are headed the rest of the way to Denali today. The plan is to talk to the rangers about a backcountry backpacking trip, as well as good day hikes. Then, if there is time, there is a Dog Sled Demonstration at 4 PM. Tomorrow, the real adventures start! And don’t worry everyone, we got our grizzly strong bear spray 😉

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Matt here. My brother and I just got back from our Arizona trip, which I had booked as a post-boards celebration.

Our plan was to fly into Phoenix, then head up to the Grand Canyon for a 50 mile double-traverse trail run. We got there early to scout things out on June 8, and had plenty of time to decide on our route before pitching a tent in the national forest and catching some sleep.

We broke camp around 2:45am and hit the trail a little after 3:30am. The first couple hours was all downhill, then it was all uphill from there (literally & figuratively). We made good time from the South Rim to the Colorado River – something like 8 miles in 1.5hrs, plus a few short stops. I never EVER get blisters running, but somehow I’d managed to do a number on the fronts of my toes from the constant deceleration of running downhill. No big deal though, because there wouldn’t be any more downhill for quite awhile.

We stopped for maybe twenty minutes at Phantom Ranch to eat some GU’s and refill water. The sun was also starting to rise at this point, so we were able to ditch the headlamps. Unfortunately, not long after we resumed jogging, I caught a bout of nausea that slowed us down quite a bit. I felt fine again an hour later, but the lost time would come back to haunt us.

By the time we reached Cottonwood Campground, the sun was peeking over the canyon walls. So we were looking at 8 miles and another 4000 feet of elevation gain in 90F+ temperatures. Yeah, that section wasn’t much fun. I felt like death 2 miles below the rim, while Trent seemed fresh and eager to keep moving. Then, when we made it to the rim, I caught a third wind and felt fine again, and it was Trent’s turn to be miserable. He’d been drinking water instead of Gatorade, and in scientific terms, I think his electrolytes were all sorts of whacked out. Poor dude’s legs were cramping up like something terrible. He could barely even walk.

It was only lunchtime, so we were looking at maybe 8 hours of rest before we needed to start the return trip (since the headlamp option was much more appealing than dealing with the heat). Given our physical state, though, we decided to bail. Trent just happened to bump into the last rim-to-rim shuttle of the day, which just happened to have two seats left in the back.

Normally I hate bailing, but I think this was one of those cases where “DNF” stands for “did nothing fatal”. If things had deteriorated on the return trip, we’d have been looking at a lot of pain just to get back to the car. Plus, we’d already basically run a marathon, with something like 10,000 feet of elevation change. So I feel like we got our money’s worth out of the trip.

We crashed at a cheap hotel in Flagstaff that night, and the next morning we were both hobbling around like cripples. So, naturally, we decided to do some peak bagging. We spent the day clmbing a couple of mountains in the area, including Humphreys Peak (the highest point in the state of Arizona).

It was a pretty fun time. Great scenery.

Pro-tip for any other runners out there with rim-to-rim-to-rim aspirations: do it in the spring, or do it in the fall, or do it *entirely* at night. Or get burned, like we did.